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Finding the best fishing spots in Utah or studying for a state driver's test is now as easy as saying "Alexa."

The Beehive State is one of two states nationwide to use Amazon's voice-controlled devices to make government information available to residents who use the home appliances. A handful of state agencies, including the Utah Division for Wildlife Resources, now offer content for devices such as the Amazon Echo or Echo Dot — and state officials are looking add more.

Just ask Alexa, the voice-controlled interface for Amazon, similar to Apple's Siri, that can answer almost any question or activate available programming via Wi-Fi.

Skills, similar to apps on an iPhone, can be downloaded to Alexa-enabled devices and activated by calling out "Alexa" and then telling the interface to launch a specific skill.

"What we are trying to do is provide the best services we can for the citizens of our state," said David Fletcher, chief technology officer for the Utah Department of Technology Services (DTS). "When we expand to new platforms, it presents opportunities to be more efficient."

Thus far, only Utah and Mississippi are using Alexa to that end.

Estimates are that only about 1 percent of Utahns own an Alexa-enabled device, but Fletcher said he expects that percentage to grow quickly.

And counting nonstate government content providers, there are just shy of 20 Utah-specific skills for Alexa these days, according to Amazon's skills list, including ones from news outlets such as KSL and The Spectrum in St. George, and information streams on backcountry skiing and burn days.

The Amazon Echo costs about $180 and the Dot is about $50, according to Amazon, the behemoth online retailer. Skills are free to enable on Alexa-enabled devices.

Alexa's chief competitor these days is Google Home, which activates with the spoken phrase "OK Google" and retails for about $99. And DTS will expand digital voice delivery to that and other platforms as those products become more widely available, Fletcher said.

After the Echo hit U.S. markets in 2015, Fletcher said DTS officials followed its development closely to see how the state could enlist voice-enabled devices to deliver online content.

Utah's first Alexa skill came in April 2016. Called Utah.gov, it gives student drivers access to practice driving test questions, while offering interesting facts about the state.

After winning $50,000 through the Amazon Web Services' City on a Cloud Challenge in 2016, Fletcher said DTS used the funds to offset its costs of training state workers to program for Alexa.

Two more skills were introduced in May, with the help of Utah Interactive — a DTS contractor and a branch of a Kansas-based tech company that specializes in digitizing government information.

Those skills let users access fishing reports across the state and find public meetings based on city or ZIP code.

DWR's hunting and fishing information is some of the most popular of the state's digital content, with more than 140,000 downloads of the division's hunting and fishing app and more than 580,000 hunting and fishing licenses sold online in 2016.

Mark Martinez, a web developer for DTS, said creating an Alexa skill for the state weekly fishing report — which tells fishers their prospects for landing fish at spots across the state, along with other information — gave the content new life.

"The Alexa skill takes the fishing reports we post online and offers them in a new and interactive way," Martinez said. "Without any extra work on our part, the skill takes the latest technology and uses it to let anglers hear the latest fishing reports."

Fletcher said DTS is now exploring how to use voice-controlled technology to complete online transactions, including driver license renewals — and that is only an early chapter of the story.

"[Voice technology] is a huge part of the future," he said, "and that's why so many people and companies are jumping into it ... and we need to be ready for it."

kgifford@sltrib.com Twitter: @kelgiffo